In 2019, our former Chair of ARHM, Richard Wheeldon, was invited to work with the Welsh Government on an initiative looking at Leasehold Reform in Wales. This included heading up the group who were tasked with looking at Codes of Practice. The final recommendations were presented to the Welsh Housing Minister Julie James in June 2019 as we have previously reported in earlier briefings. We were pleased to learn that one of the important recommendations of the Code of Practice group, lead by Richard, will be taken forward by the Welsh Government. It relates establishing an accreditation scheme for residential property managing agents and the Minister has asked her officials to start work on this as soon as possible. The full statement can be found in the link below. This demonstrates the importance of the ARHM in being involved in such initiatives that help to shape and reform the leasehold agenda. We are also working with the Welsh Government to produce an updated version of the Code of Practice.

https://gov.wales/written-statement-response-report-task-and-finish-group-leasehold-reform